An Introduction to Google Docs

How to get started...

1. You need a Gmail or Google account.

• go to Google.com home page.
• click on "sign-in" at top right corner of page
• if you already have an account, sign in here
• if you don't have an account, click "create an account now"
  • set up your account with ANY email address and your password
  • you will receive an email to this account with an activation link
• That's all there is to getting an account for Google Docs!

The video below is an excellent demo/tutorial of these steps. It is from YouTube.

2. Make a document and then share it.

• Create a word processing document.
• Save it.
• Use the "share" menu to share this document.
  • You can get a link to the document
  • You can invite others to the document by email address
  • You can send the document as an attachment
• Here is a link to a document as an example.... http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYSiUfKEampwYWg5dDl6cjJocmY0XzFmdjRiYmNkbQ&hl=en

If you and another collaborator are editing the same document at the same time, a box with the name of the collaborator appears at the top of the screen. 10 people can edit a document at the same time. Once this limit has been reached, others will be able to view, not edit the document. You can share a document with up to 200 people.

• Folders can also be created and shared. This means you can keep multiple documents together for a group of people to share.

Of course everything changed last month:
http://mashable.com/2010/04/12/google-docs-editor-features/

3. Publishing a Document

• Working with a document, click on "Share"
• Choose "Publish as a webpage"
• You will be given choices about your next step
  • Publish as a website and have it automatically re-publish the website as you edit the document
  • Publish it to your Blogger Blog
• If you publish to a website, you will receive a link, this will not have a tool bar as it is not editable.
• Below is an example of an embedded GoogleDoc... I can edit and this will update.

4. Exporting (downloading) a document

• You can download your documents in lots of handy formats
  • PDF
  • HTML
  • Open Office
  • Text
  • Word

Keeping Track

IF your editors and collaborators are signed in, using the file menu you can view the history of changes of the document.
With the file open, click on "file" then select "See Revision History" and you can revert to an earlier version, or see changes made by different individuals.

NEW! Uploading Files to GoogleDocs to store or use files (Cloud Computing)

Click on upload.
You will see this screen:



You can select the file or files to upload and the folder to place the file(s) into.
IMPORTANT - if you are using this as cloud storage, but NOT to do editing etc, you may want to de-select the check box by "Convert documents..."
These documents can be shared from here, but not edited unless you convert them into Google Docs.

You can add to your storage space at reasonable prices:

Google Forms (for quizzes and surveys)

Try one:


(answers will be shared...)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AoSiUfKEampwdHBYaGw0dFlkb202R0FkWEMwOHFwYWc&hl=en

How to do this:

• in Google Docs - Choose "Create New Form

o

• Choose the theme you wish to use by clicking on the theme at the top of this screen
• Edit the first two questions here (I suggest name fields first)
• Decide if each question is required or not
• To add a new item, click on the add item drop down on the top of this screen
• Use the clone icon (between the edit button (pencil) and delete button (trashcan) on each item) to save time and keep format consistent
• Add your items
• The Google form will automatically create a spreadsheet which this data goes into

Here is a video tutorial which includes making a form which is a self-checking quiz:



Help or Support:
http://docs.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=15114

TEMPLATES!:
http://docs.google.com/templates?hl=en